Charities Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 70:"Page 114, line 10, at end insert—" ““(7A)   If the Commission does not notify the transferor CIO within the relevant period that it is either confirming or refusing to confirm the resolution, the resolution is to be treated as confirmed by the Commission on the day after the end of that period. (7B)   Subject to subsection (7C), ““the relevant period”” means— (a)   in a case where the Commission directs the transferor CIO under subsection (4) to give public notice of its resolution, the period of six months beginning with the date when that notice is given, or (b)   in any other case, the period of six months beginning with the date when both of the copy resolutions referred to in subsection (2) have been received by the Commission. (7C)   The Commission may at any time within the period of six months mentioned in subsection (7B)(a) or (b) give the transferor CIO a notice extending the relevant period by such period (not exceeding six months) as is specified in the notice. (7D)   A notice under subsection (7C) must set out the Commission’s reasons for the extension.”” The noble Lord said: My Lords, I beg to move Amendment No. 70 standing in the name of my noble friend Lady Scotland and to speak to Amendments Nos. 71 and 72. The Bill envisages that the transfer of the undertaking of one CIO to another will require validation by the Charity Commission. This is to ensure that the purposes for the furtherance of which the property of the transferor CIO is held, and the rights of those dealing with that CIO, are not inappropriately modified by the transfer. In Committee, the noble Lord, Lord Hodgson, tabled an amendment, in order to ensure that this validation process was completed within six months of its initiation. We accepted that the interests of the charities involved could be prejudiced if the validation process takes too long, and agreed to give further consideration to the matter. However, I did explain that the period of six months may be insufficient for proper consideration to be given by the commission in complex cases. The effect of the amendment we have now tabled will be, if the commission has not notified the transferor CIO that it has either validated or refused to validate the transfer within six months from its receipt of the copy resolutions of the transferor and the transferee CIOs relating to the transfer, that the transfer is treated as automatically validated once that period has ended. If the commission exercises its discretion to require public notice of the transfer resolution, the six month period only starts on the date when the public notice is given. If the commission wants to extend the six month period, it can do so for a period of up to six months by notice to the transferor CIO, giving the reasons why the extension is considered necessary. We think that this strikes a fair balance between effective regulation, and acceptance of the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Hodgson, that an uncertain and/or over-lengthy validation process may put at risk the success of the transfer and the success of the organisation.